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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26958697">Brother and Sister</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories'>AHeartForStories</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aftermath of Violence, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family, Found Family, Graphic Description, Hiccup Whump, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Self-Hatred, Whumptober 2020, astrid whump, heather whump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:20:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,626</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26958697</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHeartForStories/pseuds/AHeartForStories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Whumptober Day 11. Post-Httyd 2. Heather has a past, but she also has a family, both by blood and found. When her past comes back to haunt her, she feels to blame when they get hurt.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Heather &amp; Astrid Hofferson, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III &amp; Heather, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>AHeartForStories' Whumptober 2020 [11]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949440</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Brother and Sister</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Finished my one-shot for this prompt back in September, read it again to spell-check and post, didn't like it at all, ending up writing something new completely from scratch in two hours.<br/>I don't know how I did it either.<br/>Anyway, this hasn't been spell-checked AT ALL because I'm in a hurry to get it up in time for Day 11 and I need to get up early in the morning for work. So if it's awkward or if there are a lot of mistakes, this is why.</p><p>Written for the prompt: "Crying"<br/>Written for the alternate prompt: "Presumed Dead"</p><p>Constructive criticism is appreciated!<br/>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Heather has a past. But despite knowing this and not knowing what exactly that might entail, the Dragon Riders took her in. They gave her a home, a bed, shared their food, their company, even offered her a place among them. A permanent place.</p><p>She didn't end up taking it as she decided to go with her brother on their journey to find their long lost father instead. But she will never forget their kindness and their warmth when she thought she had no one. The Dragon Riders are a home away from home, they are family.</p><p>Hiccup and Astrid, they are family. Just like Dagur considers Hiccup his brother, she considers both of them her siblings. So when they get hurt because of her, it is too much to bear.</p><p>She and Hiccup are both the chieftains of their respective tribes and the only reason why he and Astrid are on her island is that they were coming for a peace treaty signing. They had come not knowing that the Berserkers were in trouble, their village burning, and flown right into it. They were expecting to catch up with a friend and found a world of pain instead.</p><p>Now, hours of their rescue, she sits at a lake on the grass with Windshears head in her lap. Ripping grass out of the ground with one hand and stroking her dragon's head with the other, she can still hear Astrid's voice, her venomous cries of hatred as she shouted insults and threatening promises towards the ones keeping the three of them inside the Great Hall.</p><p>
  <em>"I'll get you for this! You scum! You won't leave this island alive! I'll kill you!"</em>
</p><p>Hiccup is usually the one to get them out of trouble, back when she was with the Dragon Riders, that is something Heather has relied on, too. But that day, he couldn't possibly save them.</p><p>When an axe came down just a little bit too hard, it had made the helmet of his dragon armor cave in. Blood pouring down from underneath it, the Inferno had slipped from his hand before he crumpled to the ground and remained motionless.</p><p>It was a scary sight, one she can't remove from her mind's eye, she keeps seeing it, can't fight the horror she feels every time it repeats inside her head.</p><p>Tears once again gather and Heather finds herself undeserving of them. She shouldn't get to cry, not when he's the one who got hurt and Astrid was the one forced to watch, kept from helping him, and seeing if he was even alive.</p><p>She'd been right next to him, too. Horribly bruised and breaths shallow from a possible injury to her ribs. A grip on her hair pulling her head back, a sword had been put to her throat and all she could do was glare.</p><p>Didn't stop her from spouting profanities, having gone nearly ballistic when she saw Hiccup, her new husband of barely three months, fall and then not get back up. It's something he always does and that's what made it terrifying.</p><p>The threats were colorful and though they probably weren't, Heather still feels like they were aimed at her.</p><p>It's probably because of the fact that she deserves every single one.</p><p>Tears fall on Windshear's head and that only makes Heather hate herself even more. She shouldn't cry. She's the one who caused this, she shouldn't cry.</p><p>So she holds her breath, attempts to fight the want to sob while Windshear lifts her head and coos sadly at her. She can see her rider's pain and she wants to take it away.</p><p>But when a sob breaks through, Heather turns away from her, her back facing her. She has lost count of how many times she has cried already and every time makes her even angrier with herself.</p><p>Shaking from the emotion, she doesn't know which is worse. Astrid's unbearable pain as shouts and screams at the invaders or her cries for Hiccup when the other Dragon Riders came to save them and finally enabled her to check up on him.</p><p>Heather hadn't stayed. Not to find out if Hiccup had actually survived that hit, not when the other Riders tried to care for her and get her help as well.</p><p>Those invaders had come for her.</p><p>Former pirates, marauders, Berserkers, she'd seen the bad they were doing. After witnessing what had happened to her own village, she made them all stop. And that, that made them seek her out for revenge.</p><p>She should've seen them coming, should've expected her past to come back to haunt her and because she hadn't, her family had gotten hurt.</p><p>She whines and she can't help but think how pathetic it sounds. Windshear appears in her view again, presses her snout against Heather's temple and she doesn't find the strength to pull away.</p><p><em>"Pathetic,"</em> She screams at herself, her inner voice mocking her.</p><p><em>"What're you crying about? You're not the one who got hurt! You're not the one who lost her husband!"</em> Despite Windshear's best efforts to comfort her, rumbling soothingly, wrapping herself around her, Heather's internal accusations continue.</p><p><em>"Hiccup?! Hiccup, Babe, I'm right here! Please, don't leave me."</em> Those were the last words she heard Astrid shout before she was too far away to hear anything else.</p><p>And then she can't breathe. The want to cry and sob and scream is overwhelming, but she can't do either of those things if she can't even breathe.</p><p>The burning inside is overwhelming and she holds herself, when she finally takes a wheezy breath, it hurts.</p><p>"Heather?"</p><p>Both she and her dragon look up to find Astrid stand there, arm on her injured side held to her as a way to keep from aggravating it.</p><p>She's wearing different clothing now, something looser that will without a doubt make it easier to move around in. Her braid is undone and her face speaks of worry. Worry she feels for her, the one who has done all of this to her.</p><p>"Astrid? W-w-what are you-what are-what-"</p><p>"Shh, it's okay." Astrid comes limping over, hushing her when Heather is unable to speak and she hates that she's making her do this. Astrid should be resting, not consoling her.</p><p>Offering her head for support, Windshear helps Astrid kneel in front of her friend and sister.</p><p>Heather can't bear to look at her.</p><p>"He's okay, you know." But she does look up at that. Cautiously, she brings her gaze up to meet with Astrid's.</p><p>"The helmet made it look a lot worse than it actually was. The healer still wants to keep an eye on him, but it did its job really well. It took most of the impact and left him with little damage. He woke up about three hours after you left and the first thing he did was tell Snotlout and the twins to stop bickering in his room." Astrid tells her, smiling as the relief she feels must be incredible.</p><p>It's definitely going to scar and Hiccup doesn't particularly care for that, but Berk will probably dig it. Signs of a warrior an all that. If his hair doesn't cover it up, wild and luscious as it is.</p><p>Heather feels like she can breathe a little easier. So he's okay. Or well, about as okay as one can get after taking a hit from an axe.</p><p>"He's a really good inventor." Heather whimpers, nodding as she receives the news loud and clear. He's okay and she doesn't need to blame herself for a death that never happened.</p><p>"He is." Astrid reaffirms and suppresses a pained groan as she moves a bit closer to pull the other in for an embrace. Her load lightening just a tad, Heather lets her, her own arms still wrapped around her.</p><p>It's always cold in the Archipelago, but it's not why she's still shaking.</p><p>"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." She apologizes knowing that it will never make this right.</p><p>"Shhh, nothing of what happened was your fault," Astrid tells her, one arm wrapped around her. She can feel her replacement tunic grow wet with Heather's tears.</p><p>"How is it not? Those guys were here because of the way I acted as a teen and you and Hiccup got hurt because of it. Worse, Hiccup almost got killed because of it. Because of me." She sobs and whines, reaching her hands out to grasp Astrid's tunic.</p><p>"Okay, so maybe this could've been prevented, that doesn't mean you were to blame. You didn't capture Windshear, she didn't hold a sword to my throat, you didn't take that axe and decided to bring it down onto Hiccup. None of that was your fault." Bringing her hand up, Astrid talks while she strokes Heather's hair.</p><p>But that's right. While Stormfly and Toothless had managed to get away, Windshear had been captured, pinned down by a heavy metal net fastened to the ground with heavy-duty bolts.</p><p>"It was naive of me to think that my past wouldn't come back to hurt us. It was so naive." Her breath hitches as she cries, her heart aching as she feels Astrid's hand going through her hair. It hurts in a good way, it is comforting.</p><p>Pulling away, Astrid cups her cheek and makes her look at her.</p><p>"Oh Heather," She says, her lips present a compassionate smile, and her thumb strokes her skin.</p><p>"None of this was your fault. And I'll repeat it for as long as I need to." She wipes her tears away, but more come and Heather hides her face in the crook of Astrid's neck and Astrid lets her. Wrapping her arm around her again, she lets her cry for as long as she needs to.</p>
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